Google has introduced its new successor of Android Beam known as Fast Share for effective Data transfer. This technology will come with upcoming Android Q. It will provide user the Android Beam data exchange, but instead of NFC, it is based upon the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.
It was first announced at the Google developer conference this year. It was announced that the Android Beam will not be available in Android Q. From there on it was expected that Android Q may come up with the successor of Beam.
Fast Share is first discovered by 9to5Google in Android Q, the option is present in the sharing dialog box and the settings. Thus, the users will be able to share any kind of data with the nearby devices without the internet connection. The sharable data also includes images, copied texts and even the URLs.
Since, the feature is available for Android Q (10), it needs to be make sure whether your phone is compatible with Android 10 or not.
How Fast Share Works??
Fast Share works in a similar fashion like Apple’s Air drop. You first need to enable the location as well as Bluetooth. For sharing a file, you must specify a device name after which a list of nearby devices will be displayed. On the other end, the recipient will receive a notification which he needs to accept or reject the data transfer.
The feature also provides a facility to set your privacy that is whether you want to be visible for everyone or for only selected devices. You can set the visibility to ‘Everyone’ or Frequent Senders.
9to5Google also claims that along with sharing data with Android devices, Fast Share will also work for exchangingdata with Chromebooks, smartwatches with Wear OS and iPhones.
As per XDA Developers, the pairing connection is set via Bluetooth but the actual data transfer takes place over the direct WiFi connection. It is even faster method than the NFC and also, Fast Share is capable of transferring large amount of data than other NFC.
About the compatibility point for using Fast share, it is not clear at this moment. However, it is believed that data sharing can be done with almost all latest Android versions. The obvious reason is that the transfer takes place via direct Wi-Fi connection and Bluetooth.
As far as the release of Android Q is concerned, it will take place somewhere in Autumn.
